Ghosts of War
by drakeara
Summary: At the dawn of the war, a joined army of Water and Earth solders make a stand against the Fire Nation. From this, great friendships are formed and lives are destroyed. For Luke, my bigger brother. NON SHIPPING, BUT HAS MINOR ROMANCE. JUST LOOK!
1. Chapter 1

One

Standing in the shade of a tall mountain, Luke glanced around at his surroundings. There was at least twenty others like him. Dai Li. Normally, they would only be used within the walls of Ba Sing Se. But this was special. A war had just broken out. It was only last year that a comet had past, Fire Lord Sozin had taken advantage of the fire bending boost it had given them and used it to do something unthinkable. He had killed all of the Air Nomads. Word of this spread quickly. Those poor air folk were unable to defend themselves from the extreme power generated from the fire benders. The avatar would have been one of them thousands. It sent slight shivers of fright down Luke's spine. An entire race, not fully a weak one either was erased. That could have been any of the nation; Fire, water, or even Earth! A very frightening thought. None of the men were anything to scream about, except for their bending skills. They were master-class benders. ; Some of the best, in fact. The sun was burning warmly and a soft breeze complimented it well. That day was a good day to die.

It wasn't only the earth kingdom that was to stand against the war. A fleet of solders from the Water Tribe was heading towards them at that moment. They would be there, on that very strip of land by the sea, in a matter of moments. They had many water benders, making them go faster. The towering, white sails could be clearly seen by then, by the Dai Li at that time. The first boat docked onto land and they could see the tiny dots of Water tribes' men jumping off of the boats' low sides into the shallow sea. They began to prowl towards the Earth army with one man, donned in a wolf skin mask, at the front. He was clearly the general. The head of the Dai Li walked towards him with his hand shown, and the two leaders spoke. The small army of men from the water tribe stood in strict formation. The solders were allowed to relax until the time of the battle. A smaller water person walked towards Luke. On their face was a mask made of the head of a snow fox. Falling from behind it was a long braid. This fighter was a girl! But there was no time for prejudices. Her skin was a comfortable tan and her eyes were of shocking blue. A knife made of whale bone sat on her hip and a boomerang was attached to her back. Beneath the mask, her face was painted with the water tribe's war marks she held out a gloveless hand to the Dai Li and introduced herself.

"My name is Abigail of the water tribe; Daughter of General Ouya and Lady Mana Tae. I like to know who I am fighting beside." No one dare take the hand of the young girl. It just wasn't right for a girl to be on the front line. It was Luke who took up her handshake in the end. He introduced himself and then his fellow Dai Li.

"Why are you fighting anyway?" He asked eventually.

"Mainly, I'm here as a healer, but it was always my fathers dream to have his son beside him in the battlefield. Because my brother has only just been born, I took his place at Fathers side." She pauses for a moment and looks up to the general and smiles lightly. "He's my father." She then turned back to Luke with a slight nod. "Hasn't been a lady on the battle field since the last lady Avatar, Makes me feel special."

The sun had long since set in the sky and the armies had set up camp. A mixture of water tribe hide tents and earth kingdom cotton tents filled half of the valley in circles around fires. Around no special fire on benches of fallen logs, Luke and Abigail sat talking and laughing on matters of little importance. They had discovered that Luke was of 18 years of age and a skilled artist. He was interested in the old legends of the kingdoms. Abigail was 15 -nearly 16- years old and was a writer. She wasn't one of the most skilled, but she just enjoyed it. Another reason for her coming her was to escape an enforced engagement with the water bending master's eldest son. On her neck was an engagement chocker made of a white silk ribbon and an undecorated crystal disk in the centre. At that moment in time, they all sat in relaxed clothes. The water bender's war paint had been washed off and her fox-face mask discarded in her small tent. The moon was high in the sky and at half sized. Whilst the men laughed over some adult joke, Abigail lost concentration, and looked up at the starry sky and up at Tui and smiled. She herself had really been in the oasis and had seen the dancing Koi fish.

"What are you smiling about, Abigail?" came the voice of the dark haired master earth bender, crashing through her flashback.

"Oh, er, nothing. Just...Nothing." She shook her head and looked around at the other, older men sitting around the campfire. She let out a yawn and stood up. "I'm going to bed. Night guys." With that, the dark blond water bender skimmed off to her little tent and dove past the flap exaggeratedly.

"Yeah, night." grunted Luke in a somewhat confused and uninterested fashion. The conversation soon grew dull for him too. Following in Abigail's example, he headed off to his tent and soon fell asleep.

The next morning, the fire nation still hadn't arrived. Luke, in his trekking there with the rest of the army, had discovered a nice clearing with a little pool and a rock formation. Great to sketch from. He left before most of the camp awoke, taking a blank parchment and some sticks of charcoal, he walked off with contented calm. The general's daughter was already there. Her hair was loose and her clothes were slightly dirty. Lazily, she made a snake of water dance in the air whist she sat on the top of the rock tower. Abigail smiled down at him cheerfully and said good morning to him in a light tone.

"What are you doing up there?"

"Bending."

"Oh" He then looked at her in thought, then struck on inspiration. "Stay up there, and don't move." She was about to ask about her bending, but he told her to drop the water, and just look like she was. Wordlessly she obeyed. When he was happy with the basic form of the image, he let her relax. She hopped off of the tower and asked to see it. "No, not yet. I'll show you when I'm done." She let out an irritated groan, and continued to play with the pool. "Here." he said a while later. He held the parchment out to her blankly. She took it and studied it.

"Um, it is good, but why do I have a fox tail. And ears. And paws. And why have got wings?" She asked somewhat innocently.

"I like to draw anthros." She looked up to him with a confused expression. "They're a kind of animal that walks on their hind legs when they'd normally be on all four. They're just pretend, but I read about them once when I was young and they inspired my imagination." She made a little 'O' face and smiled back at the picture with a nod.

"Can I keep it?"

"Sure, why not? I mean you did sit there for ages for me, so ok." She smiled up at him brightly, and got to her feet.

"Thanks, I owe you." She then started to walk back to camp with the sketch in her hand. He tried to refuse a dept, but she swore to write a tale in reply. No getting her out of her deals.

Sitting inside of her tiny tent, Abigail tapped her brush against her head in thought. Her legs were crossed and she faced away from the tent entrance with a led tablet on her lap. She was writing a letter home to her mother. Set between her folded legs was an ink block and a small dish of water. At that moment, she had very little on the letter, having no inspiration and not much happening. Slowly, her mind began to wonder. She thought back to when her father first decided to head out to war. He had just spoke up to his army when Abigail slipped up beside him. Recently, she had completed her healing training, and in her spare time mastered sword play and boomerang flinging. Ouya continually refused at first, but when Abi had demonstrated her higher skill and talent, he reluctantly agreed. He taught her how to put on the war paint, defend herself from arrows and even some low level Water Bending moves. A rustle of the flaps of her tent distracted her from her trail of thoughts, she turned her head around to see Luke standing just inside of her tent. A brown eyebrow raised on her face as she wordlessly asked him what he wanted.

"Scouts have reported Fire Solders in the distance. They'll most likely be arriving in an hour at most, so be ready." He reported formally and flatly. With a nod, Abigail turned back to the way she was facing and hastily packed away her calligraphy equipment. She got out her grey and white paints and set her fox mask to her side. Her water skin was full and lazily discarded by the entrance to her tent. Luke, in the meantime, had vanished to ready himself for the pending battle against the Fire Nation threat. She replaced her dress with a heavy battle tunic and strapped her boomerang holder to her back and strapped her knife to her hips. Dipping her long fingers in the paints, the teenage water bender smeared them cold colours on her round face in a tribal style. With both hands on her white fox mask, Abigail lowered it ceremoniously onto her head. She then got to her feet and grabbed her water skin, darting out of the loose flaps of her seal hide tent.

Two opposing armies of foes stood ready to fight each other in perfect formation. A gentle breeze made loose hair dance on the heads of solders, healers and scouts. The generals of both armies sent silent glares to one another over the grand distance of the huge clearing. The Fire Bender in charge of the Fire Army pulled his long sword out and pointed it at the Water General and, without diverting his cool, sinister glare gave the first order of the battle.

"Charge!" He yelled at his troops. The first row of Fire Nation men ran forward, drawing their weapons or creating fire. They let out a proud roar as they shot closer to the Earth and Water warriors. A moment after, General Ouya ordered his men to go as well. Luke and Abigail both were in that first line. They charged past General Ouya with an equally powerful roar. The 39 year old general watched his only daughter dart past him in shock. He reached out to her, but it was too late; she was too far away! Ouya didn't want her fighting: Not yet at least. The lines of fighters clashed together with a flash of metal, earth, fire and water. Soon after, the rest of the solders followed. Swords hit shields. Fire stuck earth and water. Burned, cut or crushed bodies fell at the feet of their killers. Knowing none of the famous water tribe mercy, Abigail took the lives of the killers of the Air Nomads. Her whale bone blade dripped blood of Fire Benders and her healing and attacking water was no longer clear, but a muddy-bloody colour. The full lips of the Water Bender were curled into a sinister snarl and her clothes and skin splattered with fresh blood; some of which was her own. Dirt and grass stains from dodging attacks also joined the gore of blood on her person. Luke was in a much cleaner state. He used his excellent Earth Bending skills to keep the blood thirsty Fire Nation away from him. With the use of styles from across the four nations, he diced through his enemies with frightening ease. Swords posed no threat to him either. A simple flick of the wrist would send an arrow of rock up from the ground either breaking the strong sword or striking the heart of the wilder. With the overwhelming power of the Earth and Water Benders, the Fire Nation number gradually lessened. The numbers going from almost one on one to 10:1 to the Earth/Water army's advantage. Knowing he stood no chance, the general of the Fire Army looked around him at the many faces of Earth and Water men in a panic. He signalled to him men to retreat, and made his own escape from the solders into the vast forest beyond. A cheer from the victorious side was not missed by the fleeing man.

* * *

**A/N: My older brother requested this fic. The main two characters are based strongly upon thier real world counterpart. -Luke, in reality, is my older brother and I am Abi- However in the real world, we don't bend. Nither do I have tanned skin: It is paisty.**

**Stay tuned for more battles, more OC's and more death. Yes I am a very morbid girl.**


	2. Chapter 2

**WARNING:**There is a lot of death in this chapter. Its very bloody and may be considered depressing. However it is still a significant chapter. Try and enjoy and don't hate me for it. Thank you for you time.

* * *

Two

Abigail sat back on her mat in the Medic tent with a scroll on her lap. All of the wounded were pretty much all healed up and either resting or already up and going. No-one was too badly hurt. and only a few lives were lost, so Abigail's job was easy for now. Her usual braid was down and formed a curtain around her face.

"Do you want to go for a walk or something, Abi, because it can't be to exiting in here." Asked Dai Li Luke Bei Fong, appearing from the other side of the curtain door. Abigail looked up, her blue eye just glinting visible through her dark blond hair. She shrugged and re-rolled her scroll, placing it beside her crossed legs.

"Sure, Emori, keep an eye on the place for me, if anyone is too badly hurt, send someone for me." She then got to her feet and addressed a water bender sitting in a different corner to her. Emori nodded and looked back down at his own scroll as Luke and Abigail left.

* * *

Silent as a summers breeze and swift as their own arrows: This is how the infamous Yu Yan Archers are described. They speak little when they are at war or on the job and are dedicated to their bows. Hidden among the shadows in the forest, a group of said archers shot towards the Water/Earth encampment. They had been employed by the general that had led the last attack on them and lost. Their mission was clear and strict: Take out the leader and the strongest fighters. Make victory within the close grasps of the Fire Nation. As they came upon the edge of the clearing, the head Yu Yang archer gave the signal and the group split. One of the best of them went after General Ouya, who was outside of his tent resting. The nameless man drew back on his bow, arrow already loaded, and released it. It cut through the air and struck it's target right in his head. The father of two fell dead instantly without a sound. The Archer nodded in assuredness and darted back into the woodlands.

"General Ouya?" called the young bender Emori wondered towards his general's tent. "Sir? Lieutenant Tei Yunda sent me to…see…you…" his small voice drained away as he came around the corner between two larger tents. Ouya laid splayed out on the floor with a pool of blood around his head, slowly being absorbed by the soft ground, and a red tipped arrow standing from between his open eyes. The colour drained from the young mans face as he stumbled away from the murder scene. He tumbled towards the path that Abigail and Luke took with an expression of sheer horror and fear painted on his face. "Abigail-Sama! ABIGAIL-SAMA!!!" he screamed. He darted past various tents and trees, gradually gaining on the two benders who were at the pool were they usually liked to talk. He skidded to a halt and panted out; "Abigail-Sama, Luke-Sama. General Ouya has been murder-" that was all he got to say before two arrows cut into his head, crossing over in the middle of his brain. Instinctively, they used bending to capture whoever shot the arrows trapping one in a cell of stone and the other in a tomb of ice. Before Emori even hit the floor, both Yu Yan archers were trapped and visible on the ground. The young water tribe maiden caught the boy's upper body before it slammed face down and rolled him onto his back in her arms. Her expression turned from one of shock to sadness as she looked into his cold, dead eyes and she brushed his lids shut and laid him gently down. Abi's eyes suddenly shot open wider.

"Dad!" she cried out, darting off in the direction that Emori had come from, reversing his path nearly foot for foot.

* * *

Rain flooded the plain by the sea as the young water bender laboured alone digging eight identical pits in a row. Her hair was in a mess and her mid-thigh length kimono was covered in mud.

"Why don't you just get that earth bender guy to do that?" asked one of the Yu Yan archers asked from the rock cell in witch all ten captured men were held. Abi halted her work temporally and looked up at him, the only captive still awake. He was about twenty years old with longish black hair tied in a formal top-knot with two bangs handing over the blood red band that wrapped around his skull. A tribal tattoo in red was scarred across his eye area, making his golden eyes more prominent against his white skin. The bar-like design let Abi see that he was leaning in a relaxed poise against the wall. Abi shook her head.

"No. Where would be the respect for the dead in that?" To this, the Yu Yan archer merely shrugged.

"I suppose. But I thought you water people buried your losses at sea?" He asked.

"Only if they died over the water. Besides, these are mostly Earth folk, you should know! Besides, what would you know about my nation." Spat Abigail, returning her attention to furiously digging. Silence took over them for a few moments. "murderer..." she muttered tears reforming in her eyes.

"I'm sorry Abigail-San..." He muttered, looking away. "This war is wrong; killing the Air Nomads was a huge mistake. This could disrupt the balance forever."

"How do you know my name? And what would you care about the Balance? Sounds very unpatriotic to me." question Abi, raising her eyebrow and looking at him again.

"I heard Luke-San say it. And having the Fire Lord ruling over all will do none any good. The world and the Gods themselves will fight against it, causing more angst than mere mortals like ourselves." Abi questioned why he was fighting with the Fire Nation but he wouldn't answer.

"...What's your name?" Abi eventually questioned, after the two stood in silence staring at each other through the gap.

"My name is Zhou Yu." he answered simply, standing more upright with his forehead still against the bars and his fingers wrapped around them. Abi then scrunched up her brow in thought and uncapped her water skin and bended out a snake of water and indicated for Zhou Yu to take a step back. When he did, she cut through the stone bars and let him out, replacing the bars with ones of thick ice as he passed. Abigail created a spare shovel out of rainwater and passed it to Zhou Yu.

"I'll let you help against this war, but one toe out of line and I shall not hesitate to kill you and all the others in there."

* * *

A few more weeks passed, and a few battles too, and the Water/Earth army was back in the original giant clearing by the sea in which their first battle was fought. They had push away from the clearing at first, but after one huge battle, they were pushed right back into the mentioned clearing. Significant losses were taken in that fight, reducing the army down to nearly half. Abigail, as the only healer left, worked long into the night after said battle, but alas there were so many she could not save. The Yu Yan archers too had been unintentionally killed by a foul shot from a fire bender. Most, if not all, of the bodies were buried whilst Abi slept. That very evening was cold and gloomy, as if the painful loss had hurt the very planet itself. The trio huddled in the Zebra Seal hide tent which had once belonged to Ouya in near silence. Abigail had not muttered a word since she awoke.

"This war is stupid." She croaked suddenly, without looking at the two men behind her. "Why did that idiotic Fire Lord Sozin have to be so greedy?" She spat out his name like it was toxic to the taste. The then swivelled around on he backside to look at the to opposite men. "Lets make an oath: An oath to never leave the battle field until this war is over and peace and balance is restored." The other two nodded in agreement and they placed their hand in a floating pile. In unison they swore:

"We shall never leave this war until the balance is restored. We swear it in the name of the Avatar and under the eyes of the Gods."

"And may they hear the oath and remember it well for we are never going back on it" Concluded Luke Bei Fong with a smile at the youngest of the three.

* * *

A/N: I would also like to appologise for /Cough/ that last chapter. My brother wrote it. I'm still not fully sure as of why I put it up.

Art for this fic shall arrive eventually. But for now you can just imagine. Ta for reading .


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: This one is short and very, well, mean noe the OC. However, it is still of significant importance.

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Three

The very next day, the skies were still grey and foreboding from the storms of the previous night. The whole remainder of the two armies were up and ready for the reproaching opponents. Luke, Zhou Yu and Abigail had taken on the role of leaders when the last of the high ranking men had passed away from poisoned wounds. There were roughly around fifty men of both nations, benders and non-benders, within the 16-25 age band. None particularly stood out quite as much as the trio, but every man was now very important. Abigail stood forward, looking at the single squadron, and spoke.

"One year and three months ago, I would never thought of myself standing here before you. One year and three months ago, I'm sure if someone said that this would happen, I assure you that you would have just laughed. But one year and one and a half months ago, a terrible thing happened: Greed finally consumed the Fire Nation and the poor Air Nomads were the price of it. Greed is a will against the Great Spirits. Greed is destructive and consumptive.

"The chances of survival are next to nothing. We shall be against countless enemies and most likely will never see our loved ones again and I have already written to the rulers of both our kingdoms to tell them this. For many of us, today is our last day. Our last chance to save our nations: To save our world!"

With the young bender's words freshly imprinted on their minds, the solders stood ready to fight till the end against the huge Fire Army that swarmed before them. Being the small army that they were, they stood closer to the foe than normal, giving the top general a perfect view of them. One that he used to attempt to scare them off.

"Ha! What have we here? The mighty Earth and Water army? Reduced to a handful of children led by a traitor, a pebble and a little girl. Pathetic!" He pulled a face that seemed disgusted to even having to use even the slightest effort to eradicate his unworthy adversaries. Abigail let out a furious growl and nearly leapt forward. Luke quickly put his arm out in front of her, keeping her back with simple calm.

"Don't do anything stupid. Just keep calm and save your famous fury for the fighting. Remember what this war is about." he advised. She calmed down almost instantly and snarled out an irritable breath.

"We fight for our nations." She said in a low jut still audible voice.

"For our loved ones." Luke continued for her a little louder. Then Zhou Yu finished in a shout:

"For our world!" With that as their signal, the men charge forward and fought with their whole heart and soul. Only a few of both nations ever were to escape.

Abigail was about to cut through the skull of a masked solder when his sword darted in her knifes path with incredible force. She lifted up her booted foot to kick him in the chest when she sent a deadly blast of blue fire to her chest, sending her flying backwards. She crashed into the ground and was unable to move far. In the corner of her eye, she saw Luke Bei Fong e didn't see the sly man sneak up behind him, he didn't even sense him until the dagger sank deep into his back. Abigail gasped, and looked in the other direction. But in that direction, Zhou Yu got bombarded with countless of arrows launched by his own people. Again she gasped and closed her eyes tightly. Slowly, very slowly, she felt the strength drain from her. Oblivion eventually claimed her for the final time at the exact same moment as the others of the pact took their own final breath.

When the true, final battle was over the few survivors of the Water and Earth army gathered together and agreed on one, simple thing. To go home and never fight again. Tell all those related who was lost of their death. To find someone and to start a family. Thus This is exactly what the meagre fourteen survivors did; they took what life they had left and lived it to the fullest. They never spoke to each other again after they left for their homes.

* * *

A/N: Warned you, didn't I? T'was short and V mean of me. Don't bite my head off just yet though: I still have a huge use of the Pact Trio(like da name? Lawl!) to come yet. Whoops, spoiler XP 


	4. Chapter 4

**Please note: This part is now current time, just after book 2. It's not going to be like book 3 though, at all.**

* * *

Four

* * *

In a quiet bar in a humble town, a man sat on his own in the silence. No one else was there, unusually, and he was quite contented with it like that. Suddenly a group of young men burst through the door, dripping wet from the storm outside and looking bluntly terrified. One by one, they collapsed onto the stools against the bar and regained their breath. He looked at them and smirked:

"I warned you, didn't I? About that clearing." One of the young men, clearly the leader of the gang looked up at him. The man sat quietly, knowing that the boy was going to tell him what happened soon.

"We were attacked. By the clearing itself, I sware! We set up our tent and started our fire whilst the sun was setting. We were determined to prove you wrong (how stupid) but the weird stuff happened. Branches shaped like arrows appeared in the ground, often in the equivalent of our vitals in our shadows. And then hills and raised bits appeared from flat points. Then the sea got angry, and out of it rose a water demon, the sea dancing in whips around her, and an earth demon emerged from one of its hills! And then a monster made of our own shadows formed and they closed in on us hissing 'Leave mortals, LEAVE!' So we ran. We ran right through the Shadow Monster-"

"It was like running through cold hatred itself" Intercepted one of his comrades.

"Yeah, it was so scary." To this, the older man just laughed.

"'Tis the resting place of the Pacted Three." He explained simply. The boys gave him a questioning look, so explained deeper. "Ninety nine years ago, three people of the three surviving nations met on the field of battle. They were perfectly matched in skill and power that they made a deal. They decide that when they all died they would join together and over run the current Gods. Now the great spirits did not like this one bit, so they appeared before them and asked them is this was the truth. They could only confirm this was so, for none can lie to a God. This angered them greatly, so they punished them all. They flung the Yu Yan archer into the shadow of which he crept, the Dai Li into the very earth itself and the Water Bender deep into the sea and cursed them to be unable to ever leave the lagoon until the Chosen ones arrive and show them the error of their ways. So for the next ninety nine years they refused to allow any of the Gods Mortal on their land. Their immercy knows no limits their hatred forever scarring deep." As he finished, he picked up his drink and drunk it calmly. All three of the younger men's' eyebrows shot u their head as they gawped in disbelief. That assured them that they would never, ever go there again.

* * *

Sitting upon a flying bison's back was the current young avatar. Avatar Aang knew that Appa was tiered by now, and Toph Bei Fong, who was sitting upon the saddleless back of the sky bison with Katara and Sokka of the southern water tribe, was growing very agitated from being away from the ground for so long. He steered Appa towards a nearby lagoon, giving Toph a fair warning before he did so, and got the huge bison to land on the grassy earth. When Toph jumped off of Appa, she wiggled her toes, looking down at them blindly.

"Has Appa been moulting again, or has Twinkle-toes actually found us a nice spot for once?" She asked with a tiny hint of malice in her high voice.

"No, its grass Toph." Aang commented innocently, not quite noticing her malice. Sokka hopped off after the Blind Bandit and helped the wounded Avatar off of Appa's head. "Thanks Sokka." He limped to a fallen tree nearby and near collapsed onto it. To this, Katara gave him a pitying look and slid off of the Bison herself.

"I'm going to check and see if that village we saw has a market." she explained. "I'll be back soon" With that she walked off into the quickly dense woods. As she had hoped, the small town had some shops. She bought a new tent, some more sleeping bags, some medical equipment and food of all types. As she passed a stall selling cabbages, a large and angry MonkeyRhino male charged through the cart, obliterating it and nearly all of the plants. An old looking man through his hands up in the air and cried:

"My cabbages!" As he did another man in a light brown suit of some description charged behind the MonkeyRhino.

"Crikey, outta the way people! He's a fast brute." He cried waving his arms slightly. "Whadda beauty." The scene made Katara pause for a moment, raising an eyebrow. She then shrugged and continued with a lot of heavy shopping in her arms.

"Miss? Would you like some help with that?" Asked a young boy from the sides. Katara smiled at him and nodded. He, and another young man who was with him, then took most of the heavy shopping from her and indicated for her to lead the way. When they were only few minutes from the lagoon, the boy finally spoke up again. "Um, Miss? Where did you say your camp was?"

"Oh! It's just up here. It has the most beautiful MarbleBerry bush, and its in bloom." Katara smiled. The boys both suddenly dropped her shopping and began to back away.

"Th-th-the Water Demon. The Pact waterbender! She came to clame our souls!" They then charged off, screaming for their lives. Katara gave a huff and began to pick up the dropped shopping.

"The cheek of them! I'm no demon." She mumbled. As soon as it was all off the floor, she turned back on her heels and stormed towards the lagoon at an even quicker pace.

* * *

From her stone seat, Toph raised an eyebrow and laughed lightly.

"Katara's back, and not sounding to pleased by the sound of it." At that apt moment, said waterbender stormed into the Cursed Lagoon, carrying way to much shopping than one young lady should be. "What's up, Sweetness?" Katara dropped the shopping by Appa with a huff.

"Some horrid, ungrateful boys called me a demon! A Demon of all things!" her arms waived up in emphasis. Tophs chair suddenly moved. It was just a little, but enough to startle the Blind Bandit. She looked confused but shook it off as some nothing. Sokka did ask what she did about it, throwing in a threat to them. "They just ran before I could. Cowards" Tophs seat suddly threw her right up out of it, and vanished into the ground.

"What was that?" She cried out loud. "Why in the Spirits' names did you do that Aang?"

"It wasn't me!" Cried out the young Avatar uncharacteristically defiantly.

"Than who else could it have been?"

"You would have felt if was even a bender in the whole area..." He had her there. Other than them, there wasn't another human, bender or not, anywhere nearby. The nearest person was way back in the village. It was really weird. Behind Toph Bei Fong, something was moving. Something was crawling out of the ground itself. It reached for Toph's leg. She jumped away from it easily. Soon it was standing at full height. At the same time, a similar thing rose from the waves. A third elongated and formed from their shadows. The first and third of the things had the figure of human males, the second had the form of a girl. Their hands rose in unison to point at them.

"Leave here! Leave our lagoon mortals. Leave or feel our wrath! LEAVE!" They hissed. On the last order to leave, the whole lagoon rumbled, the shadows grew huge and the waves turned vile, spilling into a lot of the area. The Gaang panicked, and ran from the lagoon to the village, forgetting their belonings, their wits and Appa and Momo.

* * *

A few hours later, the gaang sat on the very outskirts of the village, looking in to the dense woods that hid the Cursed Lagoon. Everyone bar in Toph, that is. Sokka himself felt foolish and embarrassed for running from the spirits that inhabited the lagoon.

"We can't just sit here all night hoping that everything will just magically appear here." Sokka complained. "We have to go back for our stuff and Appa. Momo too." He got to his feet, and stood before the group. None of the others made a move. "Fine. I'll go myself. No dumb ghosts scare me." With that, the warrior turned on his heels and stormed into the trees. Eventually, the remainder of the Gaang followed him, running to catch up.

* * *

The Gaang quickly found themselves back in that same spot outside of the village. Yet again terrified senseless and without their stuff. Sokka was blatantly stropping on his little spot a few feet from the rest of them. They could practically see the miniature storm cloud hovering over his head. Sokka was the first to scream in the fashion of a little girl and go runnig for his life when the trio returned more intimidating than ever. As they ran, they could hear the loudly menacing laughter chasing them far off. That was the final nail into the WaterTribe boy's sulk.Aang suddenly hit upon inspireation.

"Why don't we try and just talk to them? I mean everyone has a little bit of good in them, right?" Aang gave the rest of them a reasurring smile that was famaus of him.

"What?!? They chased us away. Twice! I don't think that they are going to just quit and have a nice chat with you, even if you are the avatar." Sokka snapped snidly over his shoulder.

"As much as I hate to agree with (sokka), he's right. Those things don't quite seem to want to take a peicefull option, Twinkletoes." Addded Toph, sencing Aang's disagreement. "How about we all go down there and try again, using Aang's plan. If that dosn't work-" She gave a smirk "Then we'll go by my means. Bruit force." The Avatar tried to disagree, but he had no grounds to do so. Toph's plan was a good one. So for a third and final time, the Gaang all trudged down to the lagoon, becoming very familiar with that strech of woods now, with deturmionation in their hearts and a plan fresh in their minds.

"Back again?" Hissed the Water Demon as she rose from the water, stepping on to dry land. "You three must have a very large death wish." As she passed Appa, she placed a cold hand on his nose. He let a calm grunt, causing the demon to give him a small smile that only he would notice. "Kids these day".

"Yes, so foolish." Added the Earth Demon Stepping up behind Toph.

"No, you don't understand. We arn't here to hurt you. Just talk." Aang intercepted as the Shadow One appeared. He held out a hand. "Hi, I'm Aang. I can help you, I'm the avatar." He gave a reasurring smile that had no effect. THe two men started to laugh loudly whilst the girl just smirked.

"Nice try, kid." She smiled "But eveyone knows that the current Avatar would be an Air bender, but they are all dead, now aren't they." Silence fell over the lagoon as both Aang's eyes and ignored hand fell. The Water Girl suddenly became angry. She transfigured her arm into a series of long water snakes and froze the water that built up her body in several places, to make herself more demonic looking. Her eyes glinted exactly the same as Katara's as she attacked the Airbender. Katara pushed the water away, causing her anger to be redirected on the young water bender. Thier fight was enough of a cue for a full fight to break out between all of them. Toph took on the Earth Demon, and Aang and Sokka attacked the Shadow Archer. Both the Eath Benders and the water benders were equal in power. All Sokka and Aang could do was duck and dodge for it is impossible to kill a shadow. The shadow suddenly grew furious; without so much as a sound he turned many branches of a tree into arrows and launched them at Sokka. Luckily all it did was pin him to the tree in a silly position. From another tree, he formed even more arrows than before. He aimed them at Aang, and narrowed his own gold eyes. The arrows shot forward with but a tiny woosh. They came at Aang in most directions, but he managed to deflect them all with a blast of air, in an orb, around him. The others suddenly stopped, all attention on Aang. "You...You really are the avatar?" The monsterous water form melted away to reveal a young girl, not much older than Sokka, beneath it.

"Wow. The avatar. I never thought..." Said the shadow, his voice fading away in shock. Simalarly, the one made of shadows melted away to reveal an adult Yu Yan archer. He didn't look intimidating at all. At the same time, the third one's eathen form melted away. A young adult, that bore slight reseblence to Toph, stood in its place. He held a hand out to the avatar.

"My name Luke Bei Fong, that is Zhou Yun and she is Abigail" In turn, the trio nodded at thier own name. "I'm sure I speak for all three of us when I say its an honour to meet you, Aang-Sama." Aang took up the hand shake with a smile. Feeling ignored, Sokka cried out:

"Guys, arn't you forgetting something?" It sounded like a whine, even to him.

"Ah, yes. This is Toph Bei Fong, Katara, Momo, over there is Appa and...Where's Sokka? Aang gave a quick intoduction, poining at each in turn untill he came to Sokka. Said warrior let out a cough for attention. Everyones attention snapped onto him. After a moment of quiet, Abigail glared over at Zhou Yun.

"You pinned him to a tree? Like that?" The scorned, her full lips drawing out into a finer line. He let out an embarrased laugh and rubbed a spot on the back of his head. "Well...Let him down then." Zhou Yun rolled his eyes, and did as he was told.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Yay, chapter 5, at last. Took me ages to write this one. Not sure why, though. Ah well, enjoy!

* * *

Five

* * *

Abigail stood in front of the Sky Bison, petting his huge nose slowly at the same time as scratching Momo behind his long ears. The small lemur chirruped and chattered away contentedly as he munched away on a berry given to him by the water ghost. The belongings of Aang and the rest the group were stowed in saddle bags made by Katara and Abigail, and balanced perfectly upon Appa's shoulders. Katara, who was sitting on the bison's back sorting out the last of the stuff, slid off of Appa's back and walked over to the long dead healer.

"Thank you, Abigail, for all of the help. The boys obviously weren't going to." She paused for a moment whilst they both looked over at the four boys as they showed off and talked. Toph as well was over there, being that she was unable to help the two water benders pack. She held out a long, tanned hand and smiled.

"It was a privilege and an honour to meet you." She said, before taking the hand. The moment that their skin came in contact, powerful electricity shot through both of their bodies. Memories of their family history, right from Katara's memories to the memories of Abigail's own mother after she and Ouya left for war. Images of unknown faces crying, laughing, living and dyeing flashed into their heads. With a gasp, they let go of each others hand and fell back to the floor. For what felt like forever, the two sat there with their eyes wide and their pupils tiny, gasping for air like a fish out of water. "Wha...Was that...Did...Did that just happen?"

"I think...I think that was my family -Our family- that we saw..." Katara mused without breaking eye contact with Abigail. Both of their eyebrows knitted together in thought. "Does that make you my great grandmother?" Abigail shook her head.

"No, that makes me your-and Sokka's- Great Grandaunt. Fancy that: Great Grandaunt Abigail!" She gave a laugh. By then their breath had been regained.

* * *

All of a sudden, Katara found herself somewhat whisked into the woods. Abigail had told her quietly that there was something that she wanted to show her before skimming away from the view of the group. Katara may not, have noticed it, but as Abigail walked further out of the lagoon, she began to fade. Nearly five minutes of non-stop walking later, the ghost stopped abruptly, and took both of her great grandnieces hands in hers.

"This might come as a bit of a chill on your system." She explained, closing her eyes. A sudden and bright light surround the two for a moment. It was so bright enough to make Katara shield her blue eyes and cry out in shock. When she opened them, the bright light had faded and tall trees grouped and reached up together into the sky. Only a tiny window of the bright sky was visible through the twisting branches. It made the beautiful effect of standing under a domed roof. "Beautiful, isn't it." The ghost commented, bringing her view back to her. Behind said water ghost was a tall rock structure of some kind. Crystals and Jade stones poked out of its perfect form and a little waterfall ran down the front. The pure and clean water splashed silently into a miniature pool, barley big enough for a person Katara's size to bathe in. Abigail looked behind her at the pool that had Katara encaptivated, tears almost falling from her eyes. "It never use to be like that. In fact it was quite boring before Luke and I had our way with it: I made the water pure and able to loop through that like it does. Luke dragged out the gems, and made the stone keep its shape through all forms of weathering. It was Zhou Yu that gave it its final touch." She pointed to the dome. "I really love this place."

"I can see why, its amazing." Katara gawped turning a complete turn. "The water looks as pure as the spirit oases."

"No…It's purer. No spirit inhabits it. I'm sure that it could even heal emotions at the right temperature! Go on, try some." She gloated, pulling an orb of water from it. Katara took over bending it. She pulled it close to her face and froze it. The ice was as clear as glass and as beautiful as a diamond. She then returned it to a liquid state and sipped some. It had an almost sweet taste and was very soothing.

"Wow" She then sipped some more, and bended the rest back into the water. Whist she was distracted, Abigail snapped a longer crystal from the tower. She used the moisture in the air to drill into it to make it into a vessel. She then snapped a smaller jade stone from it with the same general with. She shaped it into a screw top and tested the two together. A perfect fit. She them opened it back up and filled it with the water from the waterfall, and tightened the top. As a final piece, she pulled the ribbon from her hair and attached it to the bottle. "What's that?"

"A little something I like to call Ghost Water. Use it wisely, my niece, for it is incredibly powerful."

* * *

A few hours later and the Gaang still hadn't left. They were lounging by Appa with the Pact Trio with no real purpose for stalling. In their own opinion, there was no need to for they weren't being chased by anyone in the Earth Kingdom or the Fire Nation at the moment and no-one would dare enter the lagoon in fear of being killed by crazed demons. Mid conversation, a marvellous idea struck Aang's mind.

"Why don't you guys come with us? We could sure use someone with your skills." He smiled gleefully at them. A sadder smile was returned to him.

"We would but…" Stalled the ghost water bender. Luke carried on for her.

"We trapped here, in this lagoon. Trust me; you won't like the only way to let us go with you." On the last point, he gave a slightly embarrassed snort. It took a few pleas before he gave in. "You…you have to dig up our bodies and take a part of out bodies: A bone from each of us. There is no other way." The Gaang all looked disgusted.

"Don't worry; all the nasty flesh would've been rotten way by now." Zhou Yu smiled.

"Zhou, that's still gross." Abigail commented. She herself wasn't too keen on the idea of digging up bodies, in fear of what could be found- even though she could sense that nothing but bones, tools, jewels and clothes remained of her now. Somehow, only the flesh vanished. "Besides, they are kinda sitting on us right now" Again, the Gaang looked grossed out.

"I did think I could feel something below our feet…" added Toph, who wasn't that sickened. "In fact, I could feel some kind of bodies everywhere."

"That's because this is now just one huge, unmarked graveyard. Bodies of fallen solders are buried everywhere" Abigail commented with simplistic calm. She then got up, and moved Katara and Sokka apart. On the stretch between them, she laid down with her arms by her sides. "I, myself, am right here." Zhou Yu and Luke then laid down about a foot either side of her; Luke on the right, Zhou on the left. With a flick of Abigail's and a flick of Luke's wrists they created two earth shovels and one ice one in front of the three that could see. "Well? Get going then. Toph, help the best that you can, ok?" Toph nodded and began to feel the whole area around Abigail, Luke and Zhou Yu. Once she felt the full length of their bodies she bended a rectangle of separated earth over them. The trio then turned their forms into full ghosts and let them work.

* * *

By late night, three clothed skeletons were uncovered eight feet below the grass. Each corresponding ghost jumped into their own grave and chose a simple bone for each of them. Luke took a knuckle, Abigail chose her tail bone and Zhou Yu pulled a fingertip. After that, Abigail pulled out her old boomerang and knife and handed them to Sokka. From beneath her own body, she picked up her hair ribbon and attached it to her tail bone and then she removed her necklace and held it for a few moments. Even though they didn't love one-another, the dead healer did wonder what became of him and what it would be like if things were different. She then tied the chocker to the ribbon on her bone. Katara watched her with curiosity.

"Whose necklace was that?" Katara queried.

"It was-and still is-mine. I was supposed to get married, but I chose excitement and war over it…His name was Aipalovik…" She said looking at her bone and the locket attached to it. "I'm sure he found someone. I mean, all of the girls loved him." She added the last note with a short laugh. When the three ghosts got out of their own graves, Toph, Luke and Aang replaced the dug up earth back over the three pits. After a short moment of silence Katara asked bravely:

"Do you still love him?"

"'Do I still-?!' Ha! I never loved him in the first place!" She snorted blushing wildly. "I could never-Would never- love an arrogant, slimy, sexist, horrible jerk like that!" She then fiddled with the tip of her other finger, bighting her bottom lip as she did. Just a little away from Katara, standing behind Abigail, Zhou Yu raised a black eyebrow. Abigail then cleared her thought and made a shallow attempt of changing the subject. "Um, we should get going now, shouldn't we? I mean we can't stay here forever and I'm sure there is somewhere that we must be going to right?" Katara gave no reply for a moment, but eventually gave a slow simplistic nod.

* * *

When they launched into the sky, Abigail instantly grabbed onto Zhou's arm.

"Do we have to fly so high?" She asked with her blue eyes wide. Zhou Yu gave a quick laugh. Though the strong water ghost would never admit it, she was terrified of heights. For this, she glared at Zhou, causing him to laugh yet again and give her an affectionate pat on the head. Abigail growled in irritation and swatted at his hand. Without any full emotion, the Blind Bandit gave a quick shrug.

"You kind of have to get use to it Ghostie-Gal." She commented dully. Abigail raised an eyebrow.

"Ghostie-Gal?" She echoed. Suddenly Sokka, who had taken the rains, steered the sky bison higher and faster. Abigail let out a powerful yelp and gripped to both the bison's fur and Zhou Yu's arm tighter.

"You realise that you can nether fall nor die." Luke pointed out with a very tiny smirk. Abigail shot him a dirty look.

"Shuddup." She snapped in a horse voice. A flaming blush spread over her face. Like the stereotype of many women, she hated being proven wrong. Well and truly hated it, and the two men she had spent the last 99 years stuck with were loving it, no matter how evil it may have seemed. Abigail then stuck her nose in the air with a huff and turned her back to them, still clinging fearfully to the Yu Yan Archer's strong arm.

* * *

In the distance, some hours later, Abigail saw an oddly familiar sight; Water Tribe ships. They were lots smaller then when she sailed over the water, and had a different style and colour of sail, but they were defiantly water tribe ships all the same. She pointed them out to the others with youthful curiosity, wanting to know how they'd react. Sokka gave a brief and proud smile as his little sister cried out in joy.

"That's dad's fleet!" Aang too sat up too look at the fleet. He looked slightly paler and a little sickly almost suddenly. Only Zhou Yu noticed it, raising an eyebrow in question. As they drew closer to the small fleet, the avatar seemed to get paler and dizzy. When they were just about landing on the nearest ship, he passed out cold.

"Aang!" The two conscious members of the Gaang cried in unison. Appa landed on the deck inelegantly and let out a grunt in his usual style. Sokka jumped off of his head and nearly shouted at the nearest water-tribesman.

"The avatar's been hurt. We have to get him below decks now!" The man nodded and went to find an empty room. Whilst he did, Luke jumped off of the bison and got Zhou to lower the wounded avatar down to him. As soon as the man re-appeared, he carried Aang to the room he was told was free. Katara and Abigail followed behind. One with a slightly cold and determined look plastered on her face, one looking as worried and concerned as a mother should do. When the young avatar was placed on the bed, they got to work on healing his nearly deadly wounds.

"Please, don't die Aang. We still need you." Katara whispered whilst Abigail worked on a small fracture on his shin that Katara couldn't heal herself. Abigail gave her a brief yet comforting smile.

"Trust me, Katara, with two healers like us healing him; he'll be fine in no time." Abigail commented, giving Aang's leg a final check. That was the final wound to heal, but the avatar did not wake. "We should let him rest up, but give him a check over every day."

"I don't care how long it takes; I'll take care of him until he wakes up. He's like a brother to me." Katara said with a sigh. Abigail placed a cold hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes.

"Stay strong, girl, and don't overwork yourself. Come on, the others'll want to know what's happening." As Katara went to walk past her, she placed her arm on the younger water bender's shoulder.

* * *

_"Silly girl. Girls aren't 'pose to be able to bend!" Taunted the slightly older boy. His name was Kaison and was very mean and crude to all girls alike. Abigail stuck her tongue out at him and through the bubble of freezing cold water into his face._

_"Yes I can. I wanna bend and I can if I want to. 'Asides, my dad says I shouldn't listen to you." She resorted, sticking out her tongue in the manor that was perfectly normal for a five year old like herself again. Kaison let out a growl and bended the water off of himself and onto the icy ground._

_"Stupid girl." He snarled as he drew back his hand. He swiped it back handed across her round cheek, causing her to land on her backside with a light thud. Bewildered for a moment, she merely rubbed her harmed side staring out into the stream from which she moved the water. Tears suddenly sprung into her eyes as she realised what had happened. She gave a few short and startled sobs before bursting into tears fully. Aipalovik had heard her tears a little way off. Out of curiosity alone, he had wondered around to see what was happening. He saw Kaison, his class rival, kicking the daughter of his fathers close friend whist she cried relentlessly and he screamed at her to shut up. The six year old felt all of his anger build up very quickly. Without a singular thought, he charged at the bully with a mighty roar. Aipalovik and Kaison fought with the ferocity of wild animals until Master Loquai separated them. _

_Abigail looked up to her father with big, sad eyes. He had told the young, rebellious healer the most devastating news: She was getting married to Aipalovik. Aipalovik of all people! A little while after Abigail discovered her ability to bend water, he had turned against her, befriending the bully that haunted her right up until she left for war with her father. Right at that moment, the fourteen year old hated __all__ of those of the masculine persuasion. She was grounded and sent to her room when she had got into a huge strop and tried to fight against the arranged marriage, so she simply sat on her bed, glaring as darkly as possible at the opposite wall. For the tiniest moment, she considered running away to the other tribe, as they allegedly allowed women to bend freely, but that would be too much hassle for someone like that sexist worm. Besides, with her mum newly pregnant and her dad being freshly promoted, she couldn't leave them; they needed her too much. She decided there and then, as soon as she could she would pretend that she was leaving to travel the world and learn, like an avatar would. In reality, the thirteen year old would be going down to the southern tribe and living there, with other water bending women._

_"Dad! You don't have to go. Please, stay. Forget them and stay here." Abigail pleaded hanging to her fathers arm. They had only just discovered that the water tribe was planning to help the earth kingdom with the war against the fire nation. Her father simply shook his head of messy brown hair. _

_"I do have to, Abigail. The fire Nation could attack here at any time they want. I don't want anything bad to happen to you, your mother and your brother." After a pause, he continued with a sad huff. "You know, I've always dreamed of taking my son into battle. Having him fight beside me…" An idea instantly formed in Abigail's hard-headed mind_

_"Take me with you. I know how to use a boomerang and how to sword fight. Besides, they'll need a heeler, and no-one is better then me." With the last note she seemed to glow with self-assuredness and pride. "It would be __like__ taking a son into war, because I'm hardly the ideal daughter or wife dad." __Ouya rose an eyebrow at his daughters gloating. Maybe Mana Tae was right; letting her fight with those boys like that was a bad idea._

_"Are you __still __trying to get me to go back on that arranged marriage?" He asked with a laugh. She faked looking shocked._

_"Who me? Never. But this time I do really want to go with you. Mum'll cope without me and dummy will still be waiting for me when they send me back. Please dad?" Her father was a sucker for her sad blue eyes, so he let her get away with it: Abigail became a solder, a healer for the army.

* * *

_

Zhou Yu was sitting up on deck when Abigail came up. A week had past since Aang has past out. He was still in that coma like state. They needed a plan, badly, and no-one had come up with one as of yet. With use of the fact that they were out at sea, Abigail had altered her outfit for more summer-at-sea friendliness. She now wore a white, sleeveless dress that loose danced around her knees. Over that, she wore a long silk tunic in the same colours as the sea. Her hair was mostly down, apart from one fish-pleat that trailed from the right side of her face, next to her eye. Her chocker was blatantly visible. Zhou still had his same old outfit, apart from now he wasn't wearing his top. The teenage ghost leaned on the railing next to him, facing out at sea with a tiny smile gracing her slightly square face.

"We're getting closer and closer to the fire nation, you know." She pointlessly told him. He nodded back to her. "Will we pass your old home? See the place where you use to live, when we get there?"

"I don't know. But I can feel that pull of home. It's like when we wondered too far from the clearing or the pool back when we were attached to the clearing." He explained. Neither moved at all, both were facing the opposite direction, but had each other visible in the corner of their eyes. The younger of the two could only imagine what it would be like, feeling that powerful pull that had been created by nearly 100 years of being away. She herself could probably point to the precise point as of where her house once stood. Silently, Abigail turned to look at the one she had taken to as a best friend and smiled to his side.

"You know, I'm really excited about this. About finally ending this war."

"Remember, Abigail , anything could happen" Zhou Yu scolded.

"I know, I know. But still, there such a little chance that we'll lose, and then we can pass on…I can see Father again…I can see my mother again." A slight tear ran down her smiling face. Zhou caught it on his thumb in a fluid motion. Soon more followed in its motion, and a small sob escaped Abigail's lips, she quickly turned her back on him, burying her face in her hands. Desperately, she tried to stop crying without success. In a generally friendly and comforting style, Zhou pulled her into a hug. He held her head to his chest and wrapped his free arm around her upper torso. In reply, Abigail wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into his chest like a child would to her father. All the while Zhou Yu wordlessly comforted her, stroking back her long, wavy locks and looking down at her with gold eyes filled with pity, empathy and concern.


End file.
